Car Ferry No. 2

• Type: Train Car Ferry
• Builder: James Davison
• Built: 1895, West Bay City, MI
• Length: 309.9 feet
• Beam: 44.2 feet
• Draft: 12 feet
• Weight: 1548 gross tons
• Date Sunk: September 29, 1906
• Depth of wreck: 45 feet

The Car Ferry No. 2 was constructed in 1895 by James Davison and was built at West Bay City, Michigan. Mr. William J. Wood, a former draughtsman with Globe Iron Works and former employee of the Cleveland Shipbuilding Company, was hired to oversee the design and construction of Car Ferry No. 1 and Car Ferry No. 2. A. J. Prescott was the master mechanic for the building of both the car ferries. This ferry/barge was owned by the Lake Michigan Car Ferry company throughout its service life and at the time of its demise. This ship was used to carry train freight cars from Peshtigo and Milwaukee to Chicago in association with the Wisconsin & Michigan Railroad. The Car Ferry No. 2 was a massive wooden, open-deck, and unpowered rail ferry with the capacity of being able to transfer a train of cars. It had no engine or propeller of its own. However, it had steam boilers for operation of the steering engines, winches, and steel hawser from the towing tugs. This Car Ferry No. 2 was typically towed by one of two tugs owned by the Lake Michigan Car Ferry Transportation Company, the J. C. Ames or the S. M. Fischer.

The Car Ferry No. 2 sunk in 1906 when it capsized off the entrance to the Chicago harbor. Captain O. C. Olsen was in command when the Car Ferry No. 2 started taking on substantial water in its hold during strong winds from a northeast gale. The captain of the J. C. Ames, concerned for the safety of his vessel, released the cable connecting the Ames to the Car Ferry No. 2. Another tug, the Perfection, came to the assistance but not before the Car Ferry No. 2 overturned and three crew lives were lost. The vessel reportedly remained afloat, with its keel upward, for a short time after losing the train cars to the bottom of the lake. When the vessel capsized the cargo included 28 rail cars weighing over 1000 tons, of which half contained iron ore and the other half contained telegraph poles and lumber. The next spring, the Car Ferry No. 2 was towed farther out onto the lake by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers who then subsequently dynamited part of the vessel in August 1907.